Maliki: New Jets to Make Key Difference in Fight against ISIL

The Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced that the Iraqi army will soon receive a batch of Russian jets, “what will make a key difference in fight against ISIL”, according to RT.

Maliki also expressed regrets over Iraq’s contract with the US, saying their jets are taking too long to arrive.

“God willing within one week this force will be effective and will destroy the terrorists’ dens,” he told BBC Arabic.

Meanwhile, Maliki criticized the process of purchasing US jets as “long-winded,” adding that the radicals could have been repelled if Iraq had proper air defense.

“I’ll be frank and say that we were deluded when we signed the contract [with the US],” Maliki said. “We should have sought to buy other jet fighters like British, French and Russian to secure the air cover for our forces; if we had air cover we would have averted what had happened,” he went on.

Maliki said Iraq bought second-hand jet fighters from Russia and Belarus “that should arrive in Iraq in two or three days.”

During the interview, the prime minister also confirmed that Syria was behind Tuesday’s air strikes that targeted Iraqi terrorists, adding that he welcomed the move.

“They carry out their strikes and we carry out ours and the final winners are our two countries,” he said.

On Tuesday, unidentified bombers launched an air strike on ISIS positions in the northern Iraqi city of al-Qaim.

Iraq’s own air force has also been carrying out attacks on terrorist strongholds over the past week.